Call Congress –Tell Them No US Troops In Syria

The US government has announced that a “limited number” of US Special Forces are being sent to Syria. This is an egregious violation of both President Obama’s oft-repeated pledge that he will not send US ground forces to that country, and the Constitution of the United States, which clearly states that only Congress may declare war.

“This announcement raises serious questions about the Administration’s strategy in the region. There may be credible answers but, without the engagement of Congress consistent with the requirements of the Constitution, the American people will not get the answers to which they are entitled.

“The biggest question raised by today’s announcement is, ‘When will Congress finally accept its responsibility?’ The Constitution is clear that only Congress can authorize war.

“Make no mistake about it, this is a war. Yet, the legal framework justifying this war is loosely tied to the fumes of a Congressional authorization approved in response to the 9/11 attack on America over 14 years ago.

“A civil war in Syria did not exist 14 years ago. ISIS did not exist 14 years ago. Neither the United States nor Russia were conducting military operations in Syria 14 years ago.

“Every Member of Congress should debate and vote on the Administration’s strategy. No more bobbing and weaving. We need to do our job.”

This is important. The last time President Obama declared he would intervene in Syria, the American people rose up and said “No way!” Now, he’s defying the popular will and trying to do an end run around Congress.

21 thoughts on “Call Congress –Tell Them No US Troops In Syria”

What? The fact is, the UN must act to condemn US aggression in the ME. The US congress is more unlikely to stop the troops being put into Syria than Obama!

Antiwar.com and their readers need to start to understand that US domestic politics has no place here. Antiwar.com has changed it's tone somewhat and is starting to get that message. So here's where you went wrong: The US congress needs to come together as a body to stop the placement of special forces in Syria! Better? I think that if that were to happen then there would likely be little Obama could do but sign on with the message and make sure it was stopped.
luv from Canada.

"The US congress needs to come together as a body to stop the placement of special forces in Syria! Better?"

And this is different ,much less "better" how? The point of this campaign is to cause enough congresspersons to react to the potential catastrophe of yet another creeping, US military deployment. Its a constituent pressure action. We're not trying to amend the constitution or something..

Clearly, Americans must come together to stop all involvement in ME wars. And they must lay domestic partisan politics aside to do that. This is the correct message that antiwar.com should be pushing. Not getting involved in partisan domestic politics and alienating half of their support each time they forget to keep it that way.

I haven't understood this to be in an y way a 'partisan'; campaign .No one said pick on the Dems or pick on the Repubs either. But we have made a difference before using this tactic. . No we haven't ended war but we did slow one down considerably (see above) and something is better than nothing here. The entire US imperialist paradigm is constructed around the needs of a degenerate global capitalism constantly in crisis, and which can only be enforced by permanent war., Im ready for the working class revolution .Who's with me ? K..till then lets get the "boots" back off the ground in Syria if we can.

The problem is American presidents, Obama included, have never really given two sh*ts about receiving the consent of congress or the constitution before obliterating poor folks in far off places. Irate constituents clogging Capitol Hill phone lines was only half of the reason Obama didn't invade Syria a little while back. The other half was Putin c*ck blocking Obama with his chemical weapons peace deal with Syria, robbing him of the ability to use his "red line" excuse (don't even get me started on that farce).

Just one of these events probably wouldn't have been enough to stop Obama. It was the combination of the two that threw a monkey wrench in the war machine. By all mean call your congress person and give em holy hell but it's probably gonna take more then that to prevent another bloodbath.

My suggestion, and here me out on this cause it's gonna sound nuts, call Jimmy Carter. The former president may have been worthless in the White House but since his early retirement he has mostly devoted himself to being a very necessary pain in the Beltway establishments ass. Back in '93 another slick "liberal" war criminal named Bill Clinton had his sights set on starting a second Korean war over there nuclear program in order to prove to trigger happy swing state "conservatives" that he wasn't some commie pinko pussy. Old jimmy went rogue, visited Kim il Sung, brokered a peace deal without White House approval and then held a press conference announcing it before Clinton could react, preventing what would have undoubtedly been an international catastrophe. The Clinton's were livid. They still wont return his phone calls.

Say what you will about Carter, the sh*t he let Brzezinski get away with in Afghanistan still pisses me off, but what he did in Korea in '93 took cojones. The kind of cojones this country needs to avoid another war. With Jimmy knocking on heavens door with the big C, I'm sure he'd love one more shot at waging peace and even Obama would have a hard time demonizing a beloved old dying man.

My Quixotic suggestion? Find a way to contact Jimmy Carter and convince him to contact Assad, Putin and the Kurds. Knowing Jimmy he'll find a way to make some kind of peace deal that will capture the support of the international community and embarrass Obama, once again, into stepping away from the ledge. Add Justin's campaign to convince congress of the merits of non-interventionism and we might just have microscopic chance of stopping this madness. I don't know Jimmies digits but Plains, Georgia is a small town and bus tickets are surprisingly cheap.

I'm thinking that Putin and Obama acted in concert to stop another US led war in Syria. Here's how: It was Putin's initiative to convince Assad to give up his chem/bio weapons. Assad complied, therefore cutting the legs out from under US war plans which go back to the PNAC as revealed by Wesley Clark. Obama's red line demands were fulfilled when Assad complied. It's logical to suspect that Obama knew all along and was advised by his advisers that war would be off the table. And war still is off the table, only most likely permanently now that Russia and China have stepped up to say to the US, NO MORE WARS. We have interests in Syria too.

And of course, who could not see that the nuclear deal with Iran has cut the legs off from under the war party. It's not as if the warriors and neocons haven't been very vocal in condemning Obama and his boy Kerry, for settling that deal.

Again, stopping a war that was planned years ahead and was no secret after Wes Clark told us the scoop on the PNAC.
Not all that bad of a president from an outisider's POV. Keeping in mind that my personal agenda is in seeinig "less" US led wars. "Make that zero".

If Obama is working with Putin then why the hell is he holding a Nazi gun to his head in Ukraine. Who the hell do you think signed off on that coup de tat? PNAC? Its funny, for someone who bitches a lot about partisan bullsh*t your blame always seems to fall on Republicans. Why is that? Perhaps your confusing us with your own partisan prejudice.

Let me fill you in on something that might help you to better understand American politricks. The Democrats and Republicans in this country are both equally corrupt and serve the same corporate masters. With a few exceptions both parties have been thoroughly infiltrated by neocons, the Dems just call them neoliberals or centrists but it's all just the same wine in different bottles.

Obama is just as guilty as any of them. the nuclear deal with Iran may have pissed off the Zionist section of the neocon camp (what doesn't), but it is important to remember, Iran never had a nuclear weapons program to begin with, so subjecting them to that f**king nonsense to begin with was willfully cruel and humiliating and the nuclear deal is not iron tight it can be easily revoked by the US at any time we decide they've stepped out of line. We essentially have the entire nation held hostage.

As for your little fantasy of Obama as some kind of pacifist. Just take a look at what's left of Libya and tell me how f**king wonderful he is and what the hell do you call arming Al-Qaeda in Syria? A peace offering. Give me a f**king break and get a f**king grip while your at it. Calling out your bullsh*t is a work out.

That's just silly. It would definitely embarrass Obama and maybe even enough to stop him. But the Republicans can already be heard wailing and screaming and calling old Jimmy a surrender monkey. It's too bad but your partisanship has blinded you to the fact that one way or another, Obama's putting on hold both the Syrian war plans and the Iran war plans, is a short term break in doing business in the ME.
luv from Canada.

Jesus tap-dancing Christmas, what planet do you live on. This whole damn blog is about Obama's announced plan to send American Special Forces to help Al-Qaeda and there "moderate" brethren which hardly amounts to putting anything on hold and what the hell is partisan about sending a decent Democrat to sabotage a crooked one. Get your sh*t together. Your bitching doesn't even make sense anymore.
luv from reality.

You Americans don't give a damn about preventing more of your country's wars. You're only interested in preventing wars that are led by the other party's president. I'll confine my comments to your wars since the fall of the Soviet Union and say, it's always reliably the same. But I must say that it was refreshing to hear the R's scream bloody murder with Clinton's Kosovo war. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

And this is the problem that plays so badly at antiwar.com. You can't separate your domestic political nonsense from the real agenda. In this particular case, the screaming and gnashing of teeth by Solerso and comrade hermit at the suggestion that the US congress has to step up and work with Obama to do it's part to prevent the coming well planned wars in the ME.

This website was founded during the bombing of Kosovo and has spoken against every bloody intervention since, regardless of which political party supported it. Your obsession with partisan politics only seems to come up when someone knocks your beloved Obama. The mans an unrepentant war criminal and he's the one openly planning the next war, not congress. Get your own political nonsense together. Hypocrite.

Oh, and btw, Canada's new Prime Minister is going to pull our bombers out of Syria. Would any Americans like to congratulate him now? Or later?
Or would any of you wish to tell Canadians that we are surrender monkeys?
Either way, let me know here and I'll pass the word!
luv from Canada.